Thursday, January 18, 2007
Residents still locked out of homes as investigation into explosions at apartment complex continues
MIAMI (WSVN) -- Residents of a building at the Blue Lagoon apartment complex are still locked out of their apartments as investigators try to figure out what exactly exploded in one of the units and knocked a hole into a wall.
Authorities have charged an FSU biochemistry student with failure to properly store hazardous materials after two explosions at a Miami apartment building prompted an emergency evacuation Tuesday.
Police arrested Itai Polatnick, 23, Wednesday morning after holding him in custody following a questioning session regarding the blasts after he turned himself in Tuesday afternoon. Polatnick's charges normally carry a bail bond of $5,000, however authorities have placed bond at $1 million. He is scheduled to re-appear in bond court on Thursday.
According to investigators, Polatnick's apartment contained dozens of dangerous substances and authorities say he was practically conducting his own chemistry lab. "Basically he fancies himself a chemist. He is studying chemistry in college. He has a passion and fascination for chemistry," said Detective Delrish Moss from the Miami Police Department. "He hasn't given what his intent was, but he basically had a chem lab in his bedroom."
Polatnick's arrest affidavit lists all of the chemicals uncovered inside the apartment, some of which include ether, potassium chloride, ethanol and ammonium nitrate. Investigators are unsure exactly how the explosion erupted. Polatnick's father and his father's girlfriend were inside the apartment when the incident occurred but they were not injured.
Detectives have called in a world-renown chemist and the FBI to aid in a further investigation of the materials discovered in the apartment and the nature of the explosion. "We have a chemist that is flying in from Washington D.C. with the FBI," said Ignatius Carroll of Miami Fire Rescue. "He is known to be the best. He's coming here to work with our bomb squad technicians here who still have to identify the chemicals in there and then, now also, how are we going to remove it."
The chemical explosions prompted an emergency evacuation of 400 residents at the 17-story Blue Lagoon condominium, located at Northwest 50th Avenue and Seventh Street.
Officials say the explosions blew out a hole in a wall and resulted in a mandatory evacuation from the sixth, seventh and eighth floors. Later on, authorities evacuated all four buildings of the complex. "Right now we know that this explosion was significant enough to cause an opening in the wall," explained Carroll. "It blew the wall out through the living room of that unit. There were two tenants that were inside at the time. They saw this light haze, which triggered off the sprinkler system and flooded the apartment."
Wednesday evening, buildings one, two and three were cleared and residents were allowed to move back into their units. The residents of building four, however, are still waiting to move back into their homes. "It's been very inconvenient," said resident Matthew Kazadin. "I just wish I knew more details, but at this point there's really not much I can do."
The American Red Cross offered its services to all residents of building four, who were displaced due to the evacuation. "So far the Red Cross has provided about 900 meals in total since yesterday morning. This morning alone we did 150 breakfasts," said Lisbet Fernandez of the American Red Cross.
The other three high rise apartment buildings at the Blue Lagoon complex did not need to be evacuated; however residents were forced to park their vehicles in a different location. Buses were provided to shuttle people to their cars.
Authorities continued on Thursday to detonate the items in a pit buried not far from the condo. "It's very dangerous, you see how long it's taking. It's slow and methodical, but it's something that needs to be done this way to maintain safety," said Carlos Baixauli of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms.
According to sources from Miami-Dade College, previous speculation that Polatnick was a tutor at the college are false. Also, he has only been a student at MDC on and off since 2002.
Polatnick is a U.S. Citizen of Israeli decent, and his father is an immigration attorney. He lived in his Blue Lagoon condo with his father and his father's girlfriend.
Authorities also say Polatnick had a prior arrest for possessing bomb-making materials. They continue to work to uncover the details. No injuries were reported.
(Copyright 2007 by Sunbeam TV Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
